Reviews and More

Last night’s episode of The Sopranos was just the kind of show I’ve been waiting for! I know a lot of longtime fans love what’s been happening in Season Six, but not me. Most of the episodes have been boring and uneventful, so it was great to see a return to form. I’m just hoping this lasts for the rest of the season (series). Anyway, here’s what happened on episode 6×14, which was called “Stage 5.”

Christopher screens the movie he’s been working on for who knows how many seasons now. It’s called “Cleaver” and looks as stupid as you’d expect it to be. After the screening, Carmela nags Tony about how bad Christopher made him look. The boss in the movie is obviously based on Tony, and the character doesn’t exactly come off as a good person. When Carm confronts Christopher, he says she’s just seeing things that aren’t there. But then Christopher goes directly to his co-writer and demands that JT tell Tony the characterization was all his idea. After the use of a little force, the guy agrees.

Meanwhile, Johnny Sack gets word that he’s in the final stages of cancer and doesn’t have long to live. He gets a second (unofficial) opinion from an oncologist who is now serving time for triple homicide, and this guy thinks Johnny could live up to another year. But later, even he agrees that Johnny’s time is up. By the end of the ep, Johnny does succumb while surrounded by his family.

There was also a whole bunch of succession stuff that I didn’t really follow. I have a hard time keeping the guys in the other family straight, so I won’t even attempt to unravel the various power plays that occurred in this episode. Sorry.

Also, I should mention that we finally get to see another session between Tony and Melfi. I have missed her so much!! Tony spent the whole time talking about how unappreciative Christopher is, and we can see that Tony is really hurt by this. Oh, and from the way Tony and Christopher were acting whenever they were around each other, you can just tell that something bad is going to happen to one of them soon.

My Reaction: As I said above, this is the kind of Sopranos episode I’ve been waiting the last two years for! Several storylines took distinct steps forward and now I finally get the feeling that the end is near. It’s time to start wrapping things up, and the writers are certainly making headway now. Finally!!! I am finally excited about The Sopranos again!!

My four-year-old son loves looking through family photo albums and asks to see them almost every day. One of his favorites is the one containing pictures from a Florida vacation that my husband and I took back when we were just dating. We drove there from Chicago and spent a week in Daytona Beach, Orlando, and Key West.

It was actually in Key West that my husband proposed to me — on the beach at sunset. It was so romantic and perfect! Looking at those old photos now brings back a flood of great memories and makes me want to take off for another family trip soon. It’s no wonder that Florida is one of our all-time favorite vacation destinations!

Last night’s Entourage episode was called “Dog Day Afternoon” and was a typical transitional episode that dealt more with the guys and their daily lives than with Vince’s career. Here’s a quick recap of what happened in 3×14:

Vince/E: Vince suggests going to Napa for the weekend with their girlfriends. Actually, he doesn’t have a regular girl at the moment, but of course he can find one in no time. E agrees, but then Sloane teases him about not being able to spend time away from Vince. E says that’s not true, and to prove his point, he makes an excuse to back out of the plans. He tells Vince that Sloane doesn’t like the girl he’s going to bring. Vince says ok, so E and Sloane start to plan their own weekend together.

Later on, however, Vince proposes bringing a different girl. This time, the four of them will go to dinner first and if Sloane doesn’t like the girl, they won’t go away for the weekend. Eric tells Sloane to just say she doesn’t like the girl no matter what, but Sloane ends up hitting it off with Vince’s date and invites her to Napa. Then it’s revealed that E blamed the “test date” on Sloane, which gets everyone mad at everyone else. E and Sloane go on their weekend alone, but Sloane is barely talking to E at that point. Vince decides to take Drama and Turtle to Mexico for the weekend.

Drama/Turtle: They take Arnold to the dog park in an effort to meet new women. They do find a couple of hot chicks and get them back home, but then Arnold attacks the girls’ dog (over a raw steak) and they have to rush off to the vet. Drama and Turtle decide to wait around for the girls so they can get lucky later that night, but Turtle’s chick keeps hounding him about what a bad dog Arnold is and what a bad owner Turtle is. Turtle can’t take it, so he argues with her. She kicks him out, and her friend does the same to Drama, so neither of them get any action.

Ari/Lloyd: Ari decides to try to sign a syndicated TV writer with the agency instead of always going for actors. Problem is, the writer is gay and has never had a straight agent. So Ari enlists Lloyd’s help to sign the client. The writer is obviously interested in Lloyd and later tells Ari to send Lloyd over with the contract. Everyone knows what that means. Ari leaves the decision up to Lloyd, who says he’ll do it not for the agency, but for Ari.

Ari must have grown a conscience somewhere along the line though because he can’t let Lloyd go through with the plan. He rushes back to the gay bar and drags Lloyd away just in time — even though it costs him the client.

My Reaction: I thought this was an ok episode. It wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t a complete waste of time either. I liked the Ari/Lloyd storyline the best because I really like the way those two interact with each other. And, aw, Ari went back to save the day. I love, love, LOVE Piven!!

I didn’t care about this week’s Vince/E angst, and thought the whole dog park bit was a waste of time. However, I do realize this was just a filler ep, so I’m willing to look past this stuff. Hope next week’s offering is much better!